Public Accounts Committee begins sittings today

Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament will today, April 25, 2017 begin its annual public hearing to consider the Auditor General’s report for financial  violations of some state institutions.

Speaking at a two-day capacity building workshop organised by GIZ in Koforidua, for members of the Parliamentary Press Corps of Ghana, the Deputy Minority Leader and Chairman of the Committee, James Klutse Avedzi, said reports of  four institutions would be considered during the committee's  first sitting.

“The institutions are the Bank of Ghana’s foreign exchange transaction and receipts and payments for the first half year and second half year of 2015, performance reports on disposal of government vehicles by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture and Ministry of Health, and performance report on drug use in Ghana by the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA),” he stated.

The chairman explained that “two reports will be discussed during this public hearing starting from Tuesday… We‘ll also look at performance reports on disposal of government vehicles by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture and the Ministry of Health and lastly, we will be taking the performance report on drug use in Ghana by the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA).”

On the implementation of the recommendations by the Auditor General in its reports on dealing with infractions, Mr. Avedzi explained that Parliament has no prosecutorial powers.

However, they will rely on the Audit Committee that replaced the Audit Report Implementation Committee to ensure that the necessary recommendations are carried out.

Also Deputy Ranking Member of the committee, Nana Marfo Amaniampong, appealed to stakeholders to bring corruption and malfeasance under control in the same way the current illegal mining issue was being fought.

He was hopeful that the workshop would enhance the capacity of the press corps in the discharge of their duties.

“A lot of people in Ghana get insight into the work of Parliament through the Public Accounts Committee and you are the conduit through which they get these briefings because your reportage in the electronic and print media would enable them to keep abreast of the performance of this important committee.”

“What we implore you to do is to really imbibe whatever the consultants will be telling so that whatever you give us out there anytime we come for sitting will be nothing but the whole story so that confusions after reportage would be nipped in the bud,” Nana Amaniampong stated.